Core courses

Course listing

• Pre-programme courses

  Lay the groundwork for your learning before term starts. Our two online modules in accounting and quantitative methods are designed by LBS faculty, utilise rigorous testing and integrate seamlessly with the rest of your core work.

• Data Analytics for Finance

  Hone your ability to analyse and interpret financial statistics. Gain the techniques and confidence to assess risk, inference, significance, regressions and model credibility.

• Prep Accounting/Financial Accounting and Analysis

  Familiarise yourself with the language of finance and gain the expertise to scrutinise company reports. Analyse financial information and judge a firm’s prospects based on performance, patterns in their financial statements, profit drivers, assets and obligations:

  • Use financial information in various decision-making settings
  • Learn to analyse financial information and statements and draw inferences about a firm’s past performance and future prospects
  • Understand the main sources of reporting choices and creativity in accounting practice, and how to control for this when analysing, valuing and comparing several firms.

• Investments

  Learn the frameworks for financial decision-making through a robust understanding of the principles and practice of financial management. Explore advanced theories in the valuation of investments, management of portfolios and risk management strategies:

  • Articulate the principle of “no-arbitrage” and why this is an important concept for valuing financial assets
  • Calculate the value of risk-free and riskless cash flow streams, including those accruing to real investment projects and financial assets
  • Hedge an asset or liability’s exposure to changes in interest rates
  • Understand why the term structure of interest rates is important
  • Explain the theoretical basis for modern portfolio theory including its implementation and limitations
  • Model and evaluate portfolio risk using factor models
  • Value forward and futures contracts using the principle of no-arbitrage
  • Value options using replicating portfolios, binomial option pricing, and the Black-Scholes model.
• Corporate Finance and Valuation

  Why do companies make the investment and financial decisions they do? Understand the principles of project appraisal and firm valuation, financial structure and pay-out policy, using real-life case studies. Test your assumptions and judgements with your peer group and faculty:

  • Assess the merits of real investments
  • Compute corporate and project-level costs of capital
  • Value corporate targets using discounted cash-flow and multiples-based methods
  • Analyse financial structure decisions and credit risk at a quantitative level
  • Understand the incentive effects of leverage decisions and the role of information in financial decisions
  • Analyse corporate payout policy.
• The Purpose of Finance

  What role does finance play in society? How do we create financial systems that are fit for purpose? This unique course asks you to reflect on finance from a wider perspective, and gain a deep understanding of its past, its future and your role in this.